James w



(No Model.)

' J. W. CARVER.

No. 445,160. Patented Jan. 27,1891.

NiTEn STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES IV. CARVER, OF PAIVLE'I, VERMONT, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND GIBBOXS L. KELTY, OF BROOKLYN, NEIV YORK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 4A5,160, dated January 27, 1891.

Application filed June 3, 1890. Serial No. 354,174. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JAMES W. CARVER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Pawlet, in the county of Rutland and State of Vermont, have invented an Improvement in Axes, of which the following is a specification.

\Voodmens axes have heretofore been made in which the bit or cutting-edge is an arc of a circle and the metal is wedge-shaped up to the eye of the ax, and the head has usually been thicker than the eye and has terminated with corners at the upper and lower back edges. A ditlieulty has arisen in the use of axes. especially when splitting a log longitudinally, because when the ax is buried in the cleft of wood, the head of the ax being the widest is caught by the surface of the wood and the angles of the head are liable to stick into the wood and thereby prevent or interfere with the an being swung around in prying it out from the cleft of wood.

The object of the present invention is to prevent the head portion of the ax being caught in the cleft of the wood and to provide two pivotal points upon which the ax can be swung by the action of the handle, one of the pivot-points being about midway between the eye and the edge of the blade, and the other pivotal point, where the art is the thickest, being adjacent to and at the sides of the eye, in order that the handle of the ax may have the most desirable leverage against these pivotal points, so that the ax may be rocked upon those points in the splitting operation or when liberating the art from the cleft.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side view of the improved ax. Fig. 2 is an edge view of the same, and Fig. 3 is a section at the line The an is to be of any desired size and weight, and the bit or cutting edge 2 is an arc of a circle between the rounding toe 3 and the rounding heel 4e, and the eye A is of ordinary size and shape. The an is thickest at the point 6, and from there the surface tapers to the edge of the bit, so that such cutting-edge is wed ge-shaped and the surface at each side is a concave bevel, so that the top and bottom edges 7 and 8 are concaved inwardly. Hence the surfaces O and D are concave, and the concavity terminates on a curved line extending from the point 9 toward the heel and toe of the ax, respectively, and the head portion F of the ax is thinner than the eye portion of the ax. Hence the head portion of the an cannot become wedged into the cleft in splitting a piece of wood, and it will be apparent that the cutting-edge or hit of the ax possesses all the advantages of axes heretofore constructed, and that in splitting a piece of.

wood the art may be buried into the wood up to the portion marked 9, and as the surfaces of the an fall away in all directions from this point 9 the wood will press principally against such part 9 of the ax or against the concave ridges in the faces of the ax between the points 9 and 6, and there will be but little binding action of the wood upon any other portions of the surfaces of the ax. Hence it is very easy to rock the ax forward and backward by the handle, and thus loosen the same from the cleft of the wood for the removal of the ax, and when another blow is given and the axis buried still deeper in the cleft of the wood the wood only bears against the portions of the surfaces at the sides of the eye and contiguous to the points 6, and this being the thickest part of the ax the ax does not become bound in the cleft by the ordinary swingingmovement communicated to the handle for loosening said ax, and the back of the head being considerably thinner than the central part of the ax through the eye such head does not become bound in the cleft of the wood even when the head may have become spread by using the head portion of the ax as a hammer in driving wedges, &c.

I claim as my invention- The ax having the concave surfaces C and D upon opposite faces forming concave bearing-points upon such faces of the ax between the portions 6 and 9 of the surfaces, the ax being the thickest through the eye at 6 and the head portion F of the ax being thinner, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

Signed by me this 14th day of May, 1890.

JAMES IV. CARVER.

\Vitnesses:

Gno. T. PINOKNEY, WILLIAM G. Morr. 

